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  • Prince of Thorns: Broken Empire 1

  • By: Mark Lawrence
  • Narrated by: Joe Jameson
  • Length: 8 hrs and 57 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (457 ratings)

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Prince of Thorns: Broken Empire 1

By: Mark Lawrence
Narrated by: Joe Jameson
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Publisher's Summary

Prince of Thorns is the first volume in a powerful new epic fantasy trilogy, original, absorbing and challenging. Before the thorns taught me their sharp lessons and bled weakness from me I had but one brother, and I loved him well. But those days are gone and what is left of them lies in my mother's tomb. Now I have many brothers, quick with knife and sword, and as evil as you please. We ride this broken empire and loot its corpse. They say these are violent times, the end of days when the dead roam and monsters haunt the night.

All that's true enough, but there's something worse out there, in the dark. Much worse. From being a privileged royal child, raised by a loving mother, Jorg Ancrath has become the Prince of Thorns, a charming, immoral boy leading a grim band of outlaws in a series of raids and atrocities. The world is in chaos: violence is rife, nightmares everywhere. Jorg has the ability to master the living and the dead, but there is still one thing that puts a chill in him. Returning to his father's castle Jorg must confront horrors from his childhood and carve him a future with all hands turned against him. Mark Lawrence's debut novel tells a tale of blood and treachery, magic and brotherhood and paints a compelling and brutal, and sometimes beautiful, picture of an exceptional boy on his journey toward manhood and the throne.

©2012 Mark Lawrence (P)2012 HarperCollins Publishers Limited

Critic Reviews

"Dark and relentless, Prince of Thorns will pull you under and drown you in story. A two in the morning page turner. Jaw-dropping." (Robin Hobb)
"This is a lean, cold knife-thrust of a novel, a revenge fantasy anchored on the compelling voice and savage purpose of its titular Prince. There is never a safe moment in Lawrence’s debut." (Robert Redick, author of The Red-Wolf Conspiracy)
" Prince of Thorns got hold of me from page one and didn’t let go until I finished it on my second reading session on the second day. There’s humour here, gut-wrenching realism, high adventure, something that might be magic in the story, and certainly is in the telling of it. It was almost as if the shade of David Gemmell had returned, somewhat nastier for the experience. Thoroughly recommended. Thanks Mr Lawrence." (Neal Asher)

What listeners say about Prince of Thorns: Broken Empire 1

Average Customer Ratings
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Brutal

Grimdark at its finest. Bloody brutal in every aspect, I cannot wait to finish the series!

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

One of my favorites

Love this book and series.
Great to listen to the Audible version.
This book is excellent, you should download it!

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

younger audience

I'm 25 and felt the target audience was younger then I am. not bad though.

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4 people found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Hideous attitude to women throughout!

Way too misogynistic for me! Characters with nothing to redeem them. Clever writing but the story was not a journey I had any interest in immersing myself in!

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3 people found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars
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Disappointing

Not one chapter in and there's the glorifying of rape in too much depth. not necessary. won't be continuing. Have loved other novels by Lawrence but can't condone unnecessary rape culture in literature. choose any other characteristic for the soldiers to have to get their personalities across, rape not needed. language was beautiful though and im sure the story is wonderful, but lost a reader.

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3 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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A gory tale

Prepare for gore, magic and evil doings in this tale of revenge through intellectual strategy and might.

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3 people found this helpful

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    2 out of 5 stars
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Ehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh....you'll regret it.

good narrator but that's it. no character development save for the MC and he is basically an angry 1 dimensional contrarian who does the opposite of what hes told. the writer entertains a cute notion of the world existing in some kind of mediaeval land which in reality is a post apocalyptic version of ours, it's cute but unnecessary and doesn't really serve any purpose. the plot itself is horrendous I just can't begin to say how poor the plot is and how the writer has the characters interact. it felt like I was reading some 14 year-olds fan fiction. im getting a refund.

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3 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

A bit too much sometimes, but overall a good book.

When I started it I felt like it went a bit far, very graphic and describing. But after the second half of the book it started to make somewhat sense. It adds to the story and paints a good picture.

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2 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Not a story for everyone.

I don't think it's a bad story. It's just not for me.
The lead character that we experience the story through, is a (intentionally) horrible person, with no redeemable qualities. He is the product of his surroundings and upbringing, so it's understandable why he is the way he is, but it means that I as a reader could never connect with him, so I really struggled to get invested in this story.

My only gripe with the story itself is that I don't buy for a second that a 14 year old boy, who stopped being educated at age 10 would be as clever and literate as he is.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Your mum

Great story telling. I’ve been looking for a fantasy series to take my fancy away from WoT. This has served nicely.

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